It’s common to be anxious when a new website is put live that has replaced an existing / successful website, by default we ensure when its time for the new website to be put live that we do everything possible to make the changeover as smooth and as efficient as possible, we map old pages to new, we test new contact forms and inform Google that a new redesigned site has gone live, this is a time consuming but vital use of our time and effort in the website project plans we create when in the planning stage of all new website design projects. Here is an example review of a website that we could send to the website owner if they appear nervous or worried about the new site going live and the potential impact it could have on enquiries / sales.
The image on the right gives an indication on increases that are typically received over a period of time after a website redesign / website promotion project (SEO project) is performed by us on one of our client’s websites.
As part of the Website Design / SEO project we have already completed some of the tasks below as part of the agreement between us but re-checked and documented them today on the back of our conversation as you stated you thought the visitor numbers / enquries have been negatively affected since the website launch. These checks have taken us longer than expected, as I said I woudl get back to you within 1 hour, but hopefully the information below will have given you more of an insight into the website / visitors and marketing of the site.
We done a full health check on the site focusing on what could be the cause of any slowdown in enquiries that you indicated could have occured and here are our findings / thoughts below. In general there is nothing wrong with the website, there is no real / obvious reason for the lack of enquiries but there is a possible cause for lack of enquires that I have observed, see ‘Summary’ at bottom of email.
1, Website stats / analytics – In the short time since the website has been live we have noted that all stats (sessions / visitors / pages views / average session duration / bounce rate) seem the same or have improved and are better than before the new site went live. This demonstrates that the site redesign / migration was done correctly and the website’s new design / pages are stopping visitors / enquiries.
2, Google Search Results – Google report no site or URL errors / Google report no Security / Malware issues
3, Google Ranking using google.co.uk as the search engine as of today it is showing similar / better ranking to what we had before the redesign giving 7 rankings showing as 1st, 7 rankings as 2nd and one as 4th, these are all improvements to the redesigned website launch.
4, Google Maps listing – This is current / live and correct with both phone numbers and correct address / location.
5, Facebook Account – Live / Correct but address incorrect (recommendations you change this)
6, Contact Forms / Email / Phone numbers – Website contact forms / email links and phone number links checked and all working
The contact form on the website has been used to send 30 contact form enquires in the last 15 days, have you got these enquires? Should all be in your inbox of your primary email account. The subject now starts with ‘Enquiry from’ instead of ‘Contact form’. The fact it has that amount of enquires seems to indicate everything look healthy from the website perspective as the enqiry rate has increased (average of 2 per day, compared with enquiries before the website launch).
7, Website page redirects (old site to new site) – These have already been mapped / tested and re-tested today, all are tested correctly and Google has now indexed all the new pages and de-indexed all the old .html pages.
Suggestions
1, Correct your address on Facebook page as its using the old address, perhaps add the landline phone number also.
2, The google local map listing didn’t show as the first option during some local searches, this could be due to your lack of reviews on Google. We suggest sending this Google Local Listing review link to previous clients, to encourage them to review you positively
Please can you give us a Review on Google (will need a Google account – takes 1 minute to create if you haven’t got one)
What we have done recently as part of our website redesign / SEO project
1, Added your new address to the website contact page
2, Added a new profile image / cover image to your Google Local Listing
3, Added additional categories to the Google Maps listing
4, Added a submissions capture system to the website (so all enquiries are recorded on the website as well as being send to you via email)
Summary
In general the website functions / looks / operates better than it did previously this is confirmed by checking website stats / Google reports / Contact form functions.
The one concern we found was that there now seems to be a lot more ‘paid’ / advertised companies that you can see if you google your primary and secondary search terms. for example where you now get between 2-4 paid adverts before the local map which appears before the natural listings (where you at top).
Therefore I confirm the website looks / functions better than previous website but Google has recently updated their results page to give more advertising space at the top of the page and this could be why your believe you are loosing out on business and your business competitors are getting calls / emails instead of you, I would suggest we can create you an advertising Google Account and start advertising you on there using a modest daily / monthly budget initially?
